Barbecue grills currently sold are normally configured to cook food on the horizontal surface of a cooking grate or grid mounted above some type of heat source. The food is cooked sequentially on one side or another until appropriately done. It has long been known and practiced to cook food in an additional way on such products by placing larger pieces of food on a horizontal skewer some distance above the normal grilling surface and rotating it continuously until it is done. Typically this skewer is rotated by an electric motor located outboard of the cooking area so as to be less affected by heat and the skewer runs through two simple bearings supported on brackets on each side of the cooking area. This is normally referred to as a rotisserie kit. It will be clearly noted that the length of the skewer is then determined by the spacing between brackets which are spaced on fixed distance that defines the outer edges of the cooking area.
It will be realized that a specific set of parts, comprising a rotisserie kit, designed to fit one size and configuration of cooking area may not be large enough or be too large to fit another cooking area found on another barbecue grill. Therefore, there is a need to create a rotisserie kit that will fit all sizes of barbecue grills. This has typically been done by continuing to use the brackets that attach to the grill at the outer edges of the cooking area and by providing a multi-piece or telescoping skewer, it being well understood that a very long skewer that would fit all sizes of cooking area would become difficult to package and handle. However, the art of creating multi-piece or telescoping skewers creates complex, expensive and unreliable products due to the effects of prolonged exposure to heat and cooking products and by-products. It should also be realized that with a very large cooking area, which would normally be proportionally wide, the typical residential consumer need will still be to cook no more than one piece of meat, not necessarily using the full width of cooking area available.